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I have friends who are members of the NRA. We don’t talk about guns very much because our views on the subject are strong and diametric. The specter of the latest slaughter of schoolchildren demands, however, that I address this essay to these good, law-abiding gun owners.

Let me start by saying that there is nothing inherently wrong with guns. The same goes for drugs or poison or TNT or transfats. There is also nothing inherently good about any of these things. We have to be careful with them, is all. Common sense should tell us, however, that the more catastrophic the misuse of these things can be, the more careful we have to be. I don’t think we need to outlaw unhealthy food, for instance, but I think it makes sense to say no to private ownership of, say, H-bombs. It’s a question of degree.

I’m okay with the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms. It’s right there the Constitution, after all. I do not, however, put that right on the same level with the rights to free speech, free press, or the freedom of religion. I think that these aspects of our humanity are inherently good. The history of human expression and personal conscience has been around for as long as we have. Firearms, on the other hand, are not fundamental to the human equation. They are simply one of many technologies our species has developed in the last few hundred years. The protection of one relatively new technology just doesn’t deserve the importance we give to rights that are innate to our nature as human beings.

That said, I am content with protecting your right to hunt. I’m okay with you arming yourselves as a defense against harm. These school shootings, however, are not acts of self-defense. They are large-scale attacks on children using weapons of war. That is wrong on its face. I don’t want to hear how much fun it is to shoot an AR-15 at a firing range. If we can trade that little bit of pleasure for a child’s life, we should take the deal.

I don’t want to take away guns, I want to take away the ability of moody loners to conduct large-scale slaughters at schools and other public places. The NRA, it seems to me, does not care about these shootings. Its believes that the Second Amendment represents a nearly absolute right — an honor that no other Constitutional right enjoys. True to its doctrine, the NRA has encouraged the proliferation of these weapons of war among ordinary citizens — with awful consequences.

If you are a member of the NRA and disagree with its position on this question, I am asking you to resign your membership in that organization. Now. Keep your guns, but please don’t fund a group that elevates them to a place of honor above the lives of children. Whatever the NRA may do to protect the right to bear arms under the Constitution, it also supports efforts that undermine our right to enjoy lives safe from this kind of atrocity. It is not a question of degree to them, but an obsession with firearms. That is not healthy for anyone.

So defund the warmongers. Abandon the NRA. I’ve got your back, I promise.

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